Monday, March 28, 2011

America, the Ugly: Morlock Pleads Guilty

No moral compass
Is this the face of the 'Great Satan'? Like all evil it is banal.  What Morlock and his fellow soldiers did in Afghanistan is nothing but twisted perversion, the product of a death culture. The Army could not say anything about their soldiers' murder of unarmed civilians in the face of the Der Spiegel exposé[warning: photos are disturbingly explicit] except it is "repugnant to us as human beings". Corporal Jeremy Morlock escaped with his life after reaching a deal with military prosecutors to rat on his fellow uniformed assassins. Court martials of twelve others will begin soon. Morlock was sentenced to 24 years imprisonment, but can expect to be released after serving seven years or when he reaches his thirtieth birthday. Still a lot of life ahead for him, but not so for the victims he hunted down like animal trophies. The so-called "kill squad" waxed (his terminology) at random three Afghans for sport. It boggles the mind even more that Morlock grew up in Wasilla, Alaska and played hockey with Track Palin on a team managed by none other than the most famous ex-governor in the world, Sarah Palin. Morlock got into drugs in Afghanistan, prescription and not. He was concussed, suffered from personality disorder, and PTSD according to army doctors. But he was not removed from the battle. His unit, 5th Stryker Brigade was SNAFU, and Brigade commander Colonel Harry Tunnell was removed for presiding over a "dysfunction command structure". One brigade soldier attempted to report killing of civilians to higher authority at headquarters in Seattle without results. Morlock's mother, who spent $50,000 on his defense, says her son was following orders. They always say that, but this time it is believable.  Brigadier General Stephen Twitty wrote a 500 page report of the investigation concerning officer knowledge of drug use and plans to kill civilians in Khandahar at the request of 2nd Infantry Division commander, Curtis Scaparrotti.  The army has classified the report, giving it only to defense attorneys representing accused soldiers.  These war crimes make the torture of Abu Ghraib look like a frat party.